The Return
by Calypso.Bay
Summary: There is a new power brewing in Middle Earth...one that is made for good use, but can be twisted into evil...bad summary. R&R, it's better than it sounds.


_Okay, go easy on me. I wrote this a long time ago, and I was debating about whether or not to post it. I'll put the first chapter and see how it goes. Sorry if it's a bit long. And yes, for those of you who care, I did steal a few names from my other story... and sorry for the random changes in scenery, there were supposed to be breaks betwixt them. –VFD_

Chapter 1

_Discovery _

"I don't think we're supposed to go this way," whined the little elven girl. Her older brother frowned at her. "Don't be such a baby," he said, as his sister pouted. "No one's going to catch us, and what danger is there? Ever since the Great Battle…" He said this last part almost to himself, still enjoying the newfound safety of Middle Earth. "Well I still don't like it! I'm going home!" the little girl complained. "Fine," the boy said, "but don't let the orcs catch you!"

The little girl stomped through the brush, heading toward what she thought was the way out of this clump of woods. She grumbled about her brother, and about boredom, and about many other things irrelevant to this story, until she tripped over a rock. When she looked back, she saw it was a very oddly shaped rock.

The rock looked like a foot.

The little girl crawled over to it, curious. She brushed some leaves off and found that there was more to this rock than there appeared to be. She slowly looked up into the face of the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.

The elven girl scrambled away until she hit another rock, and turned to see another stone woman. She stood, looking around to find that she was in the middle of a ring of eight stone statues of women, all of them beautiful. Each one was different, yet each face was kind, and she wondered what a group of women were doing out in the middle of the woods, and how they came to be stone.

One statue in particular caught the girl's eye. It was a statue of a young woman, younger than any other of the statues. The statue had a bigger smile on than the other statues, and had her hands cupped and slightly outstretched in front of her. Her hands were empty, but she didn't seem to be begging for something. It was as if she was offering something to the elven girl, who touched her hands gently. She pulled her finger back, however, almost as soon as she came in contact with the stone.

The hand was warm.

The elven girl stumbled back in horror. It felt as though the hand was alive. She tripped over a rock and fell into a pile of autumn leaves, scraping her elbow. As she examined the wound, she was oblivious to the slowly changing statue in front of her. The stone woman turned into a living, breathing woman, starting at her toes and creeping up to her long, dirty blond hair.

The young woman looked around her, taking in the forest and her fellow statues. She looked at the little elven child and smiled. "Hello," she said simply. Her voice was young but mature, and it made the elven girl less afraid of the living statue. "Who are you, and where are we?" The little elven girl opened her mouth and closed it, then said, "We're in Middle Earth, of course. And who are you?"

The woman smiled. "I am the goddess, of course," she said, "the Healing Goddess. Now, it's time to wake up the others." The goddess spun around to face the statues behind her and waved a hand in the air. Magic poured out, spilling over three other stone women, presumably goddesses.

The second goddess to come alive was the most beautiful out of all of them. She had long, flowing blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes. She stepped off the short pedestal that all of the goddesses were on and walked towards the Healing goddess, her expression blank.

"Where are we, and how did we get here, and who is the elf?" asked the Goddess of Love. The Healing Goddess smiled at her, but before she could say anything, another voice cut in.

"Wherever it is, it's not very dark. I wonder if it has night at all." The elven girl peered around the two goddesses to see the third, and most terrifying, goddess. She was dressed in a long, black gown, and she had long, black hair. Her eyes were a contrasting violet, and the elven girl thought she was the strangely beautiful face of death. But it wasn't death's face she was looking at—it was the face of the night.

"Of course there's night, it would be a very peculiar place if the planets didn't revolve," yet another voice said to the Goddess of the Night. This goddess was taller, and seemed to be older than the other three. Her long black hair was speckled with silver hairs, and her calm, gray eyes were wise. "And I wouldn't be here if the planets didn't revolve, if there were any other planets," the Goddess of the Planets added. She turned to the three remaining statues, and her eyes flashed a bright green. The statues glowed the same color, and one by one, joined the other living women.

"Oh, good! This place has a nice big forest! I wonder how many people are starving?" the fifth goddess to come alive said enthusiastically. She had odd eyes—they were greenish-yellow, like a cat's. Her bold brunette hair didn't go past the bottom of her shoulder blades, and her skin was tanned from being outdoors. The Hunting Goddess had a quiver filled with sharp arrows slung over her back, and in one hand she had a long hunting bow.

"Not enough for you to hunt in these woods!" The Goddess of Nature stepped forward to face the Hunting Goddess, her green eyes flashing. She had hair the color of young tree bark, a medium brown, and her gown was green like the fresh spring grass. "You want to bet on it?" the Hunting Goddess retorted. The Goddess of the Planets stepped forward to separate them as the next to last goddess stepped off the low pedestal.

The Warrior Goddess had medium length, wavy red hair, her flashing green eyes standing out among the fiery locks. She was not stocky, but obviously a superior fighter. Her sword was long, and the little elven child couldn't tell, but it was as sharp as a kitten's tooth. The Warrior Goddess was the only one not wearing a long dress; she was instead wearing a sort of a medium length leather skirt and bodice. "Let's leave the fighting to me, shall we, ladies?" The Warrior Goddess joined the others, and they turned to watch the last goddess come to life.

The Goddess of Music shook herself before stepping off the pedestal. Her soft, light brown ringlets tumbled past her shoulders, almost touching the bottom of her shoulder blades. Her bold blue eyes sparkled with curiosity as she stepped into a new world of sound. "Well, this ought to be fun," she said, and the little elven girl thought she had heard the beautiful call of a phoenix when the goddess spoke.

The Goddess of the Planets focused her attention on the little elven girl, who was staring at each of the ravishing goddesses, awestruck. She bent down to the girl's height, who was now standing. "What is your name, little one?" The elven girl was shy, and looked away from the goddess's kind blue eyes. "Elya, of Lorien," she murmured. The goddess smiled. "Well, Elya," she said, "you should be glad that you were here to wake us up. We are the eight goddesses, and we are in Middle Earth once again. There is nothing to fear, we are here to protect you. Now, run along home, your mother is probably worried about you."

Elya nodded and ran through the woods smiling to herself, feeling very important that she was the one who woke the great goddesses.

The Goddess of the Planets turned to the others. "Well," she sighed, "I suppose the word is out now. You'd all better find your separate corners, or this is going to be an ugly era, even if it is a great one." The goddesses smiled at each other, glad to finally be back in Middle Earth.

The excellent crops they got baffled the people of the small Rohanian village. The week before, their crops were practically dust, and now they had food to spare. Some of the elders in the village claimed it was the strange woman who had passed through their community the day before. No one believed them, of course. Little did they know that the reason the crops were good was because of the strange woman, who was indeed the Goddess of Nature.

The goddess was making her home on a large hill overlooking the village, and its surroundings. She discovered a large oak tree near the edge of the forest, on the side overlooking the landscape. Since it was the end of autumn, the leaves on all of the trees in the forest where almost gone, and the Goddess, who named herself Amariel, needed some cover from sneaky eyes. So, being the Goddess of Nature, the forest above the small village had one tree with leaves in full bloom...

The city bustled with business. People scurried about, not noticing the stranger in the cloak. People were far too busy to notice one person…even though that person was the Warrior Goddess.

The goddess, now named Authiel, had roamed the city for hours, but there was nowhere she could stay to think of a place to construct her domain. So, she decided to take note on what the castles in Gondor looked like, then decided to build her own. Being a goddess, she could easily put together a castle with magic, but she wasn't sure how to build one. So she carefully studied the Gondorian castles, and when the time came, she went into a small valley behind a hill next to the capital city of Gondor, where no one knew that it was there—yet...

The palace was smaller than most, and not as elaborate. It was still fit to hold a goddess, of course, and it caught the attention of many sick people, for it was the domain of the Goddess of Healing.

The goddess, who the people named Nestariel, already had inhabitants from all over Middle Earth on quests to her palace, requesting a solution to a plague or an herb to cure a deadly cough. Her palace overlooked the mouth of the Greyflood river, and yet she hadn't seen any hobbits yet. Since Nestariel was a bit lengthy, she named herself Laryc, and was happy, mostly because she didn't have to build a palace of her own. She discovered an abandoned castle, and with a little spit shine, had it looking brand new in no time. Being it the first week of their freedom, the other goddesses didn't have much time to check up on the youngest, which gave her a feeling of responsibility she handled well, fortunately...

"Tell me, love, who is the most beautiful woman you've ever met?" the Goddess of Love asked her newest suitor. The handsome young man smiled. "You, my darling, you are the most beautiful creature I've ever seen. Vanya, you are like a goddess," he said, unknowing that she was a goddess. Vanya, as she called herself now, looked out of the castle window at the Gulf of Lhun. Her palace was stunning, as was she, and her lover was almost as stunning as the two of them.

"Let us go, my dear," he said as she gazed out of the window, "I'm hungry. Just looking at you dries my mouth and empties my stomach, for I am always wanting more." The goddess turned and kissed the man on the lips, then led him down into the grand dining hall...

Deep in a cave at the base of the Hithaeglir mountain range, near the forest-country of Mirkwood, the Goddess of the Night was building her domain. The entrance to the cave was visible from the edge of the forest, and the goddess, dubbed Vanmoriel by the elves, had magically dug a passage leading to a great cavern, where her dark palace stood in the middle of a lake.

The Goddess of the Night, who had decided that Vanmoriel was too long and nicknamed herself Asina, would come out after the sun set, and examine the woods in the dark. She would see the lights that the nocturnal elves had lit, and smile to herself, satisfied with her choice of home. Asina would then wander the forest, and when the first ray of sun burst over the horizon, and the elves that were not nocturnal would rise, she would go back to her palace.

Asina would spend the day watching Middle Earth through her pool of foresight, given to her by the Goddess of the Planets, if she were not sleeping. And when another goddess summoned her or vise versa, she would emerge. If no one summoned her, she would leave her cave and vanish into the night once again...

High atop Caradhras, in a temple that made the mountain seem bigger, the Goddess of the Planets sat on her throne and admired space from her charmed ceiling. Lady Nanethiel, as she was now called, could see any planet and any solar system from her ceiling. The metallic ball on the marble pedestal next to her was her form of seeing time, be it past, present or future. Although Nanethiel's prediction skills were not strong, her present abilities were, and she could also see and of her goddesses from her superior temple, along with any other being in Middle Earth.

With the snowstorm raging outside of her domain, the Goddess of the Planets rose from her throne and summoned her favorite maid, Neptune. "Yes, O Mother?" Neptune said as she approached the goddess. Lady Nanethiel smiled at her, and said, "My daughter, I feel it is time to sup. Let us eat our meal with thanks, for I believe something is about to happen." "Something good?" the maid inquired. "I don't know," the Goddess of the Planets replied, her expression vacant, "but I certainly hope so..."

The huntress crouched behind the nearest shrub, eyeing her prey. The young buck, oblivious to the goddess, continued to graze merrily, as it's stalker closed in for the kill. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the buck's head shot up, and it stared straight at the cat-eyed lady. The deer took off, leaping and bounding through the woods, and the Hunting Goddess sat baffled at the buck's sudden realization of her presence.

The Hunting Goddess, now called Falathiel, stood and returned her arrow to it's quiver, slung her bow over her shoulder and turned to head back to her palace, which lay in the middle of a great forest in the Shire. As she turned, Orisia almost stepped on the foot of a hobbit who had been following her secretly, even though the goddess knew he was there the whole time. The hobbit looked at the goddess curiously, then said, "Who are you?" His voice was rich with a hobbit accent. "I am Falathiel, and you are…?" the goddess answered.

Just as the hobbit was going to answer another came leaping out of a bush. "Pip!" he yelled excitedly, "Pip! Guess what I just found!" The hobbit called Pip spun around to face his companion. "What?" he said. "Fireworks!" the other hobbit yelled, but when they turned to face the goddess, she was gone...

In the dead center of Fangorn forest, where only the words of the Ents are spoken, there was a great, vine-covered palace. The palace had been abandoned long ago, but now it's white and green marble was shiny and new again. The Goddess of Music had settled into her new home, and was now testing out her newest instrument, a silver horn. She put the instrument to her lips and blew out a warm, clear note, followed by another, and another.

After that, she went into a room on the next level with a piano in it. She was the only being in the universe to have a piano, so far. She sat on the coal black bench and tapped absentmindedly at the ivory and ebony keys. Aerlinniel, as the Ents now called her, then launched into a full song, as graceful and cheerful as she felt at the moment. While she played she though about a nickname for herself that was shorter than her actual name, and decided on Naowyn.

Once the goddess finished her song, she decided she would go out and be with the Ents, who were excellent company, and they enjoyed her presence as much as she enjoyed theirs.

_A/N: You make me depressed when you don't REVIEW. So if you love me or if you hate me or if you don't really care, REVIEW pweeze. --VFD_


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